WORLD CUP AND EURO FINALS

• Sergio Gonella was having dinner at a friend's place in Buenos Aires when a neighbour came by to tell the Italians she just heard one of their country men was going to get the final, someone called Gonella.
• It was the highlight of his career and his last important match, the 1978 World Cup final Argentina - Netherlands. A controversial tournament, the final held in a stadium that stood very close to the army barracks where people were being tortured. But not during the final.
  
  Gonella was ordered to start exactly at 3 pm, but just before he wanted to blow his whistle, Argentina player Daniel Passarella told him Dutch striker Rene Van der Kerhof was wearing a cast around his arm, which is dangerous. Van de Kerhof had been wearing the same cast since the start of the tournament, but Gonella knew Passarella had a point. Van de Kerkhof couldn't play.
  
  If he doesn't play, none of us will play, another Dutch man cried out. Gonalla had a problem. The Italian ref tried to get eye contact with the FIFA bosses on the stand, but none of them looked.
  
  Then Gonalla found a piece of foam in a dug out and ordered the Dutch to cut it and put it over Rene van de Kerkhof's cast. Play could finally start, nine minutes too late.
• Gonella considers himself a down to earth kind of person and slept well the night before the final
• Gonella, who sent off 75 players in 175 Serie A matches, was very lenient in the 1978 final.